International Herald Tribune, "Cockpit recorder reveals pilots' terror in Brazil plane crash"
The pilots of doomed TAM Airlines Flight 3054 screamed "slow down!" and "turn, turn, turn!" seconds before their Airbus A320 skidded off the runway in Sao Paulo and slammed into a building last month, flight recorder transcripts revealed Wednesday.
According to transcripts read before a congressional commission investigating air safety in Brazil, the pilots were unable to activate the spoilers -- aerodynamic brakes on the plane's wings -- as it sped down the short, rain-slicked runway.
"Spoiler nothing," one pilot says, giving the first indication that something is wrong. "Slow down, slow down, slow down!" The other pilot replies: "I can't. Oh my God!" The last words heard in the cockpit were: "Turn, turn, turn! Oh no!" followed by screams and the sound of two explosions. The July 17 crash at Congonhas airport killed all 187 aboard the jetliner and 12 people on the ground in Brazil's deadliest air disaster.
